This application relates to three dimensional mapping systems for automotive vehicles and other articles. More specifically, but not exclusively, the application describes a method and apparatus applicable to diagnostics and repair operations in relation to automotive vehicles and other articles and providing improved means for the mapping of both upper regions and lower regions (or indeed any two or more regions) of a motor vehicle.
Requirements for the mapping of the upper regions of a motor vehicle arise generally in relation to crash repair operations. More specifically, a requirement for convenient and accurate mapping of a vehicle""s super-structure arises in relation to the use of folding structures in convertible automobiles, particularly where the folding structure is rigid or semi-rigid, thus requiring exact matching of its structure in relation to corresponding portions of the vehicle super-structure.
Of course it is entirely possible to carry out the mapping of the upper portion of the vehicle as an independent operation, utilizing, if suitably adaptable, the mapping equipment used for the underside of the vehicle. However, in the diagnostics and crash repair field where mapping time is of the essence, it is an important functional selling point for mapping equipment manufacturers to be able to offer a system having the capability of carrying out the upper and lower mapping operations in an integrated or sequential way in which the upper mapping steps would (for example) be carried out immediately after completing the lower mapping operation, and preferably with a minimum of interruption of the sequence of coordinate-reading steps.
The difficulty in continuing a 3-dimensional mapping operation between upper and lower portions of a vehicle or similar structure arises from the fact that the energy emission or transmission devices employed in the mapping operation for one portion of the vehicle do not readily permit the continuation of the mapping operation from one portion of the vehicle into the other due to the differences of pure xe2x80x9cgeographyxe2x80x9d in terms of the aspect of the relevant surfaces and structures whereby energy signal transmission via a simple direct path (as is preferred for straightforward mapping operations) can occur.
One approach to this problem has been proposed in WO 99/56146 (in the name of ISE/Globaljig) which proposes the mapping of three intermediate or side locations on the vehicle as a means for transferring the coordinates of measurement or reference between the two portions of the vehicle to be mapped. Such an approach can be made to work with care, but it requires a careful choice of location for the signal receiver or transmitter which carries out the mapping steps for it to be able to exchange signals with the transmitters or receivers at the intermediate locations, not to mention the difficulties of mounting the transfer signal generators (or receivers) on a side or intermediate portion of the vehicle, which may not be convenient unless some magnetic or the like system for mounting is adopted. There is also the need for these transfer signal generators (or receivers) to be visible (in terms of reasonably direct signal transmission to the signal receiver) throughout both the mapping operation for the upper and for the lower portion of the vehicle, and this can impose significant constraints.
WO 99/36216 (Perceptron) discloses a robot-based non-contact gauging system for vehicle manufacture in which a target structure, including a three-dimensional framework, is used for re-calibration purposes when the robotic system has been bumped or jarred.
It will be appreciated from the foregoing that some significant improvements are needed in this area and it is an object to provide a method and apparatus offering improvements in this respect.
It has been discovered that a straightforward approach can be adopted to the co-ordinate transfer requirement, which eliminates the need to mount on the vehicle, or other object to be mapped, a set of emitters or receivers to serve as a co-ordinate transfer device, and which are xe2x80x9cvisiblexe2x80x9d (in terms of effective energy signal transmission) in both the upper and lower (or other) mapping region operations.
Instead of providing signal emitting means at an intermediate location enabling the establishment for both mapping operations of a fixed, and well defined location which appears in the results of both mapping operations so that, effectively, they overlap, means is provided for causing the actual transfer at a chosen time (which can be chosen quite freely) of an energy signal between two mapping systems in a manner such that the signal transmission between the systems itself establishes their relative dispositions in space, or their relative coordinates.
Thus, in accordance with this approach, all that is required for such relative coordinate establishment is the provision of means for the transmission of an energy signal between the two mapping operations (upper and lower or other relative dispositions). For the purpose, it will be appreciated that there is a need to provide, for the purpose of the relatively instantaneous transmission of the coordinate relationship-establishing energy signal, of twin or dual energy transfer components such as signal emitters or receptors, between which the energy signal is transmitted. Likewise, since such signal transmission and reception will involve an emitter/receiver pair, there will usually be provided a pair of one such (emitter or receiver) and at least one such (receiver or emitter) of the other kind. In this way the coordinate transfer step can be performed relatively very quickly and easily at a chosen and convenient point in the overall task of carrying out the two sets of mapping operations. Moreover, the energy transmission step between the two mapping operation systems is carried out relatively very quickly. Indeed, the energy signal transmission itself is of course substantially instantaneous and does not require that the means for transmitting that energy signal (for example an emitter or a receiver) be mounted at a defined and carefully chosen location on the article to be mapped. Thus, in one case (for example), the energy signal is transmitted between receiver means for the upper vehicle region and receiver means for the lower vehicle region and, thus, the energy signal transfer means is itself energy emitter means, which can be a single item of such emitter apparatus which is adapted to transmit simultaneous signals to both such sets of receiver apparatus, then this emitter apparatus can be a simple hand-held device with energy emitter means at known spacings along its length and adapted to emit signals for convenient reception by the twin or dual receiver means.
In another case, the energy signal is transmitted in the opposite direction and twin or dual emitter assemblies are provided for the upper and lower (or other) mapping regions, and in such a system it will be understood that the individual mapping steps in the upper and lower mapping regions are performed by the transmission of energy from those same dual energy emitters to receivers at the locations to be mapped, or indeed to a wand-type hand-held device which is manually located at the locations to be mapped in a sequence of mapping steps.
Thus it can be seen that, in accordance with the disclosed embodiments, the upper and lower mapping operations, or more generally the two mapping regional operations, can be carried out quite independently of each other and in any desired sequence of steps. In order to inter-relate the mapping coordinates (in order that these can be evaluated in relation to manufacturer""s data or pre-crash mapping data, or otherwise), all that is required is to set up the arrangement for the transmission of the energy signal between the two systems. This will usually require no more than the hand-holding of (for example) an energy signal transmission unit which transmits such energy signal instanteously (for example on actuation of a push button). This can be done without the need for particular attention to any requirement for the holding of the energy signal transmission means stationary or vibration-free, provided that a sufficient energy signal is simultaneously transmitted and effectively received by the complementary signal reception apparatus in both the regions to be mapped. In this way technical requirements will be met.
The described embodiments incorporate twin or dual energy-signal emitters or receivers for the two regions to be mapped and with the provision of, additionally, signal transmission or emission means adapted to transmit a signal between these two systems, as described above, in the step of relative coordinate establishment. It may be said that such a provision of twin or dual energy emitters or receptors (or one of each) amounts to a requirement for additional equipment with respect to a system in which (for example) as described in the WO 99/56146 specification discussed above, a single energy receiver is provided for operation in relation to both mapping regions. However, the answer to this is the enhancement of the performance of the system, whereby both of the regional mapping operations can be conveniently carried out quite independently and in any sequence, and without the annoying requirement to establish an intermediate mapping location establishing an overlap zone between the areas mapped, and indeed without the need to re-position the main energy receptor apparatus after completing one mapping region""s operations and before commencing the next. As a result, the modest additional cost associated with additional energy receiver apparatus is significantly outweighed by the advantages perceived by the user of the system.
In an embodiment, there is provided apparatus in which a pair of receiver or emitter assemblies are included in the overall apparatus and, in use, these two assemblies can be used together, one in relation to mapping the underside of a vehicle or other structure, and the other in relation to mapping the corresponding upperside thereof.
During the mapping operations the mapping work can commence with either the underside or the upperside, and such mapping proceeds in the usual way. Then, when it is desired to commence mapping the other side or region of the vehicle or other structure, the following additional step is carried out. The additional step comprises carrying out a mapping or coordinate-establishing energy signal transmission step between the two sets of emitter or receiver apparatus, so that the coordinates of the one (which has just been used for mapping the vehicle or other structure""s underside or upperside) can be used as a reference base for establishing the corresponding position co-ordinates of the other set of emitter/receiver apparatus. This is done in an instantaneous and easily carried out step utilizing the transmission of the usual energy signal from or to the two sets of emitter/receiver apparatus by means of an intermediate (complementary receiver or emitter) device acting between the other two sets and serving to provide for the simultaneous sending to each of an energy signal or else the receiving from each of an energy signal for mapping purposes. This top/bottom mapping step can be performed at any time in the overall mapping operations but, of course, after it has been done (and before any additional vehicle mapping steps are carried out), care must be taken not to disturb the thus-mapped receiver or emitter apparatus, so the usual practice will be to carry out the top/bottom mapping step only shortly before commencing the next sequence of vehicle mapping steps, thereby to minimize the likelihood of the accidental introduction of errors arising from mechanical disturbance of the mapped apparatus by personnel.
It is believed that the use of a mapping step carried out between two sets of emitter or receiver apparatus (each capable of carrying out mapping operations with complementary receiver or emitter apparatus) in relation to a vehicle or other structure has not hitherto been needed or carried out because mapping operations are basically carried out using such apparatus in direct (signal transmission) relation to corresponding emitter or receiver apparatus mounted on or touching the vehicle or other structure to be mapped, since such is the essence of mapping operations.
However, it has been determined that significant advantages are obtainable by this approach which permits straight-forward mapping of both the underside and the upperside or other regions of a vehicle or other structure. Such mapping operations can be performed in any sequence (for example with mapping steps alternating between above and below the vehicle) provided that the coordinate transfer step has been carried out before such alternation commences.
Such an arrangement is particularly suitable for automotive crash-repair diagnostics and remedial vehicle-stretching work. In such work, there is a need to be able to quickly determine the effect, both on the vehicle upperside and the underside, of a given degree of vehicle stretching. Moreover, this needs to be able to be performed without tipping the vehicle up, as would be required with the system of previous proposals. Also, because the mapping step carried out between the emitter or receiver apparatus used for mapping the underside and topside of the vehicle (or other structure) can be carried out without the need to mount the immediate signal emitter or receiver apparatus on the vehicle (or other structure), because the coordinates with respect to the vehicle are already known, this top/bottom mapping step can be carried out in a simple, rapid and convenient way on the basis (for example) merely of the user manually holding the intermediate signal reception or transmission apparatus in operative relation to the other two sets of apparatus for energy signal transmission purposes.
Since the energy signal transmission can be performed on the basis of a signal transmission time which is relatively extremely small compared with the time taken to execute motion arising from wobble due to hand-holding of the intermediate signal transmission/reception apparatus, the errors arising from such wobble will be negligible and the expected desirability to mount the intermediate signal transmission/reception apparatus on a stable/fixed mounting is thereby removed and hand-holding of the intermediate signal reception or transmission apparatus is acceptable.